Monday November 6th 2023

The temperature got down into the fifties overnight. It was nice that the sun rose into the sky earlier to start warming things up sooner. By mid afternoon the temperature peaked in the low to mid eighties. Each day this week is forecast to be a little bit warmer.

I got out of bed this morning as the inside temperature reached the high sixties. I felt much better today. The head cold I’ve been fighting the last few days is fading away. I can breath easily again. It is a good thing, because my facial tissue supply is waning.

This afternoon I headed out in search of food. I didn’t take anything out of the freezer yesterday, so my choices were limited and I was feeling lazy. My destination was Cooks of Dublin at Disney Springs for Fish and Chips. I also wanted to see what Christmas decorations were up. I’ve seen picture on the Internet of the decorations at the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood studios, but nothing yet from Disney Springs.

It turns out there was a good reason I hadn’t seen the decorations on the internet. They weren’t up yet. All of the Halloween decor has been taken down but the outside areas have not been decorated for the next set of holidays. The inside of the Disney stores are all decorated and all of the holiday themed merchandise is out. As night approached there was one possible sign of holiday decorations. All of the palm tree trunks sparkled with white lights. I don’t know if it is for the holidays or if it is an all the time thing. It looked good either way.

I got my Fish and Chips early in my visit to the Springs. The rest of my time was spent walking around, checking out a few stores and enjoying the day. Some of the places are so popular that you need to wait in line to shop. The Lego store and Gideon’s Bakehouse always seem to have lines. Would you wait an hour to buy an expensive cookie? Maybe fifteen minutes for a good cookie, but I have never tried any of their cookies.

As the day progressed I decided to delay my departure until after sunset. I didn’t think the combination of rush hour traffic, the glare of a setting sun and the newness of the two happening at the same time were a good driving combination. As a reward I got to hear some of the early performances of the evening entertainment.

Sunday November 5th 2023

The change back to standard time overnight cause the usual confusion this morning. The clock in the bedroom was still on daylight savings time, so that adds to the dilemma. Do I get up now or wait until it is really my usual time to get up? I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but I was only able to split the difference. So did my day begin a half an hour early or half an hour late?

I ended up taking the classic Sunday drive this afternoon. I set out without any real destination in mind. About 150 miles later I was back home after making a big loop to the south and east. There was a lot of other people out on the roads today. Some of them may have been traveling as aimlessly as me. At one point I decided to turn around and head back the way I came, but between traffic, the narrow road and absoultely nothing along the road but grass and a ditch made it difficult. The first opportunity to turn around was also my first opportunity to turn north. I was in the interestingly named town of Yeehaw Junction.

Don’t let anyone tell you that Florida is all development. Once you get away from the main routes and the established communities there is an awful lot of open land. Today I traveled trough miles of ranch land and some swampy land near the Kissimmee river. That is not to say there isn’t plenty of development. New housing is going up along the main roads going south and east from the Orlando area. Every year it is much further out from the current population centers. You can almost judge the state of competition by the distance from the cities.

The sun was starting to set as I neared home this afternoon. The early sunset is another part of the return to standard time that I will take a few days to get used to. I was greeted at my site by one of the resident pairs of Sandhill cranes. They reluctantly moved so I could park, but hung out just across the street and watched me get out of my car. I turned on my camera and took a few pictures of them for which they seemed to willingly pose.

Saturday November 4th 2023

It was another Florida Fall Day. The temperature for the day started in the low sixties and peaked in the high seventies with lots of wind out of the northeast and east. It was mostly cloudy, but unlike Friday it never rained.

This morning was a little more active than my normal leisurely breakfast pace. While I was waiting for the coffee to brew a big trailer arrived to occupy the site across the street. These are narrow park roads that don’t allow much room for maneuvering. I went out and volunteered to move my car to give him more room. He might of been able to back in without the extra space, but I sure got a lot of piece of mind out of the act. The guy was actually pretty good at backing up, even though he claimed it was the first time he ever had to back into a site.

I spent the day watching TV and snoozing off and on. My goal is to kick this head cold as soon as possible. The runny nose and congestion in my nose is a royal pain. I still managed to get in a good walk around the RV resort. The selection of birds was a little different today. One of the peacocks actually visited my site this afternoon. Earlier in the day I saw a more colorful duck than usual and a mystery bird that I’m still trying to figure out.

Friday November 3rd 2023

This week has been confusing to my routine. When I woke up this morning I was confused by the personalities on TV. Why were the weekday people on the air on Saturday. It took a couple of beats before I realized it was still Friday. Earlier in the week I thought Tuesday was Sunday. It has something to do with the day following a visit to Disney and a disruption to my sleep schedule. I also woke up congested this morning. It looks like I have a head cold.

Early in the day the weather seemed to be a repeat of yesterday, but in the early afternoon things changed a bit. Dark clouds moved in and a brief burst of rain disrupted the nice weather. It only lasted about five minutes. It rained hard enough to fill the puddles in the depressions in the grass and road. The rest of the day has been cloudy and dry.

I was just getting ready to leave my RV home when the rain started. It resulted in a delay that ultimately changed my entire afternoon. Not knowing how long the rain would last, I started to prepare some food for lunch. The delay was enough time for me to reconsider the rest of the day. I took a nap instead.

On my daily walk around the RV resort the sandhill cranes and ducks were in different locations. I know that someone in the park is feeding the ducks with feed corn, but it didn’t look like that was driving their location today. The clouds blocking the sun also kept the turtles from climbing the dead tree to warm up. Only one turtle was visible today.

Thursday November 2nd 2023

I was up before the sun this morning. Since this is one of the latest sunrises of the year, it wasn’t as impressive as it sounds. My reason for getting up early was a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It opened at 8AM, but more important, the animals are more active in the morning.

I planned to leave at 7:30, but didn’t actually leave until 7:50. Traffic was heavy, but not as bad as Monday morning. I was in line for the Kilimanjaro Safari ride just before 9AM. It turned into the longest safari ride I’ve ever taken. The animals seemed to want to stand in the road this morning. The safari trucks have to wait for the animals to move before proceeding. The ride is normally about twenty minutes. My ride this morning was almost an hour long.

Even though the ride was longer, it wasn’t better than normal. Most of the time the animals weren’t on my side of the truck. Added too that was the position and angle of the sun. The animals on my side of the truck were often right in the glare of the sun. I still managed to get a few nice pictures.

After the safari ride I walked all of the animal trails and generally wandered around the park. It was about what I consider to be normal occupancy. The wait times at the popular rides in the Pandora section of the park were over an hour. The other rides had average waits, except for Kali River Rapids. No one, including me, wanted to get wet with temperature in the low seventies. It had no posted wait time and most of the rafts passing by were empty.

My first ride on the safari in the morning had a posted ten minute wait, but it was mostly a walk on. I went back for a second ride on the safari in the afternoon. I had to wait about thirty five minutes for that ride. My position in the truck was very similar to my morning ride. Most of the animals I wanted to see were on the other side of the truck. My view was partially blocked by big people with Mickey Mouse Ears on their heads. This ride lasted the expected twenty minutes and did include a few different animals.

I was back home by mid afternoon. The early in the day visit allowed me to ride the safari twice, but I think the added sleep may have been more valuable. It was a fun day overall. On my next visit I’ll focus more on the shows. Today was the animals.

Wednesday November 1st 2023

For me, today was all about the weather. A cold front passed through the area last night. As a result today was a cloudy, blustery and cold day. There was a strong north wind all day. The temperature never broke the seventy degree mark. Compared to most of the rest of the country that is still quite warm, but I wasn’t mentally prepared. Tomorrow is forecast to be a little brighter and a little warmer, but still below the seasonal normal temperature.

The weather seems to be a major driver in my ambition and energy levels. Waking up this morning to the cool temperatures inside my RV home and the gloomy world outside my windows, I rolled over, pulled up the covers and went back to sleep. When I did get going it was still a gloomy day, but the inside temperature was a little warmer. I didn’t have any desire to leave my RV home until afternoon.

While having breakfast I watched the people walking dogs and the crew mowing the grass in the resort. They were dressed at extremes. Some people were all bundled up in heavy coats, hats and even gloves. Other people, including the lawn crew, were in summer clothes. To me short sleeves and shorts might be the wrong clothes for sixty something temperatures and a twenty mile an hour north wind. When I went out later in the day I wore a sweatshirt over my short sleeve shirt, but still wore shorts. I was comfortable.

The birds that live in and around the park were also acting different today. Most of the ducks were missing. They were probably back in the woods on the far side of the pond. Some of the sandhill cranes were not up and wandering around. For the first time I say two of the cranes sitting on the ground with their legs pulled up under their bodies and their heads back along their backs. It seemed to be an attempt to rest without having to resist the strong wind.

Tuesday October 31st 2023

Happy Halloween! Today was a nice warm and comfortable day. The high temperature was in the mid eighties. It was nothing like the Halloweens of my youth in the Northeast. My memories of Halloween are associated with cold temperatures and wet weather. It was also darker in the evening because the time change back to standard time was in the middle of October rather than the first weekend in November. There isn’t anything going on here for Halloween. A few people have decorated, but haven’t heard about any parties or golf cart parades. This is a fifty five plus park, so there aren’t any kids to go door to door.

This was a chores around the home type of day. After yesterday’s busy early morning, today was a slow and lazy start. I got what I needed to accomplish done in between walking around the resort, watching some TV and chasing obscure information on the internet. There was a little impromptu dark entertainment today. The fire department and an ambulance were called for one of the guys playing horseshoes this morning. Apparently the game was stimulating enough to cause him to have chest pains. I don’t think of horseshoes as physically demanding, but … Thankfully, the afternoon scuttlebutt was that he was going to be OK.

The weather is supposed to turn colder tonight. A cold front is passing through that will result in the temperature barely passing the seventy degree mark. The average high this time of year in central Florida is right around eighty degrees. The thing that makes this time of year very nice is the nightly lows in the sixties.

Monday October 30th 2023

I left my RV home just after eight thirty this morning. My destination was Disney’s Magic Kingdom. On Friday I learned that the US Air Force flight demonstration team the Thunderbirds were making a flyby over the Magic Kingdom this morning. The Thunderbirds were in town for an air show over the weekend. Disney took advantage of that to arrange a flyover to celebrate the contribution of the armed forces, veterans and their families.

Getting to Walt Disney World this morning was a challenge. In good conditions, it takes between twenty to thirty minutes to get there. This morning because of traffic and construction it took a little over an hour to get to the Magic Kingdom parking lot. I usually don’t arrive at the parks with the morning rush. It took another half an hour to get into the Magic Kingdom. The wait for the Monorail was long and the alternative ferryboat transportation seemed to be an issue as well.

The flyover was scheduled for 10:30. I had fifteen to twenty minutes to find a place to watch the event. Lots of other people had already stacked out their spots. The crowd on Main Street looked thicker than the crowds for the nightly fireworks. I found a nice spot up on the railroad station front porch. There were three rows of people in front of me at the railing, but I was taller than the folks immediately in front of me. After a few minutes wait the Thunderbirds made there first pass over Cinderella’s castle and straight down Main Street. A couple of minutes later they did a second pass breaking formation into a “bomb burst” pattern over the castle. It was a very impressive demonstration. I’m glad I made the effort to get there.

Wandering around the park after the flyover I found the park very busy. The wait times for the popular rides were very long. I checked out all of the areas of the park and took a Journey with the Little Mermaid, a ride on the riverboat and watched the Carousel of Progress show. Around two in the afternoon I headed home after a pleasant morning in the park. It only took twenty minutes to get home.

Some Birds at Disney

Sunday October 29th 2023

It was another nice weather day very similar to Saturday. I had a little more energy today thanks to a full nights sleep. In the early afternoon I set out for a state nature preserve area south of here. I’d been there before and knew roughly how to find the place, but wasn’t concerned. The journey was the real adventure. I wasn’t looking forward to the hiking part of the outing.

The last time I went to the preserve I went south of Haines City on state route 17 before turning east at a sign. This time owing to today’s sense of adventure I decided to turn east in Haines City and then go south. It was on of those “I wonder where this road goes?” kind of decision. So let the adventure begin. The road turned abruptly left and right to avoid housing developments and more significantly lakes. When I looked down at the compass indicator on the dashboard, I was going north. Clearly not the direction I wanted to go, but let the adventure continue. Later, still on the same basic road, I was heading south, then east.

The road continue to wind this way and that. Sometime it was narrow and sometimes multi laned. At one point I was approaching a big brick building with very few windows surrounded by tall fences. I thought I’d found a prison, but it turned out to be a high school. I guess all the housing developments, both new and old, had a place to educate their children, but what does that say about the types of buildings we build for schools. After almost an hour turning left and right and never finding a numbered route, I gave up and turned on the GPS. I really was in the middle of nowhere with lots of lakes. The easiest way out was back the way I came. It was a fun adventure, but shame on me for turning on the GPS. That’s an exploration failure.

With all the driving I needed to fill the gas tank. Last Saturday I bought gas at a very reasonable $3.04 a gallon. During the week, gas prices at the same station were twenty five cents a gallon higher. Today the price of gas was more than thirty cents a gallon cheaper at $2.97 a gallon. Are the stations around here running weekend gas sales? I am not complaining, I filled the tank.

Saturday October 28th 2023

The nice Florida fall weather continued today. After a comfortable high sixties overnight temperature, it climbed to the mid eighties today. The humidity was at a comfortable level and a good breeze offset the bright sunshine.

After six plus hours of almost continuous walking yesterday, today began slow. I expected a little physical discomfort emanating from my leg muscles, but no such issue presented itself. My theme park walking legs are back. Even so, I slept late and got a slow start to the day. I lingered with my breakfast coffee until nearly noon.

Overall it was a day for chores and relaxing around my RV home. On my walk around the RV resort today I saw more activity. It looks like more of the snowbirds are returning. Many of the RVs that were closed up were showing signs of life. Cars from northern states and Canadian provinces were present on the sites. There are still a few empty sites, but I suspect that will change over the next few weeks. Another sign of the increased activity is the increased golf cart activity. The social gathering for golf cart gossip is getting bigger. They do a pretty good job of blocking the road as they gather by the swimming pool.